The Babysitting Wars
by xSerenityIsn'tAlwaystheAnswerx
Summary: Pepper's sister Lisa needs a babysitter, and Pepper is the only one available. But it turns out that she's not the only babysitter around. Tony joins in and soon there's a full challenge/competition match evolving. Who will win? Read to find out.


**i am deciding to write a second iron man story, and can't wait for the movie to come out. everytime i see the commercial, i just want to scream because it feels like the days are going by too slowly. Lord I can't wait to see it and laugh. anyways on with the story. its just a one shot, though.**

Meeting with the Ambassador of Mexico's weapon devision, check.

Meeting with the President about the growing deaths caused by Tony's weapons, check.

Meeting about how to stabilize old prototypes of the Arc Reactor, check. And those were just 3 of the 40 meetings that were attended today.

Pepper was pleased with herself. For the first time in working for Tony, she finally got him to attend all of the meetings he had scheduled for one day. It wasn't much, but it was something none of his past assistants had completed. It was a new victory for Pepper.

But what was she supposed to do for the rest of the day? She had finished her work at the office, sorted out Tony's e-mail, and even went through the trouble of downloading all the software Stark Industries needed which took two hours in the process. Not to mention she did this every two weeks.

She thought about doing errands, but there was nothing she or Tony needed. At least not yet. She thought about going home, but went against that idea. Tony couldn't last 10 minutes by himself without doing anything drastic, and that's a known fact. In fact that led her to thinking about last week's explosion down in his workshop.

Just at that minute while she was thinking, her Blackberry started to ring, and the caller ID said, ''Lisa''.

Pepper smiled as she picked up her phone. ''Hey, Lisa. How are you?'' Pepper hadn't seen her sister in 7 months, and during those months she was working for Tony. It felt good to hear her voice again.

''Pepper I need for you to do my a big favor.'' Lisa sounded desperate.

''Um, sure. What is it?'' Pepper had some free time on her hands. Might as well do something useful with them.

''I need for you to babysit Greg and Beverly for me.'' Lisa said, sounding slightly relaxed. ''I have a meeting with the Board of Directors with my boss's company and if I'm not there I'm dead!''

''Don't all of us.'' Pepper muttered.

''And I can't find anyone to babysit the kids. You're the only one I know who I trust and lives nearby, so do you think you can take a break from working and watch them for me?''

''Actually I'm free with work for right now, so yes I'll babysit. Where are you? I can go pick them up-''

''There is someone at the door, Miss Potts.'' Jarvis's voice boomed throughout the house.

Pepper got up and walked to the front door. ''Uh, hold on Lisa I have to get the door for someone....'' There, on Tony's front steps was Lisa with a straightforward face, in one hand holding Beverly who was in a baby carrier, and in the other holding Greg's hand, who looked like he was about to pee in his pants.

''How did you get here so fast? You live in Los Angeles!'' Pepper helped Lisa and took Beverly's carrier away from her.

''I was already on the road because I knew you would say yes.'' Lisa said. ''Plus you haven't seen your niece and nephew in ages so I figured this would be a good time.''

''Fair enough. Tony should be down in workshop all afternoon so there shouldn't be any trouble.'' Pepper said.

''Okay then. Here are all the things you need to know about the kids. Beverly is allergic to anything soy-related so don't give her any. She's also allergic to certain types of cow milk, so don't give her that either.''

''So what is she supposed to drink if she's allergic to all those?''

Lisa patted the diaper bag that was slung over her shoulder. ''I have bottles of breast milk ready to go. Just heat it up.''

Pepper was afraid to touch that bag.

''Greg needs his nap sometime within the hour and he can't go anywhere near chocolate.'' (Which made Pepper remember about all the chocolate frosted covered cereals and to hide them later).

''Also, get him to a bathroom. I was so worked up on getting to work I forgot he asked and he kept bouncing in his seat.'' Lisa looked down at Greg who looked like he was about to burst.

''On the job. Now get to work. Don't want to be late now do we?'' Pepper took the diaper bag(told herself to wash her hands later) and moved Lisa towards her car.

''You're a lifesaver Pepper.'' Lisa hugged her before getting in the car.

''Tell me something I don't know.'' Pepper waved as the car drove out of the driveway and up the road. Then slowly turned to the kids on the two steps.

''Hit Auntie Pepper!'' Greg called out.

Pepper smiled and took him by the hand, leading him inside, where she was startled to see Tony standing in the middle of the room.

''Auntie Pepper?'' He mocked.

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him. ''He's only a 2 year old. He doesn't say much you know.''

''So when were you telling me about these things?'' Tony asked, pointing to Greg and then to Beverly.

''Hey I'm not a 'thing'!'' Greg pouted. ''I'm a boy!''

''That's right. You are a boy.'' Pepper said. ''And last time I checked, you never asked about my personal life Mr. Stark.''

''Well even if I did, you would just say you had work to do, _Miss Potts._'' Tony said. ''Why aren't you at work anyways? You're usually the workaholic type.''

''Well I finished all I had to do today so when Lisa called, I agreed to babysit for her.'' Pepper led Greg to the bathroom down the hall. ''So you can just go back to being busy with your work!''

''How hard can this be anyways?'' Tony asked her when they came back. ''This is babysitting, right?''

''That's what they named it didn't they?'' Pepper grinned at him. ''Why are you asking? You want to do it?''

''No, just wondering.'' Tony shrugged. ''Though even if I did want to, I could possibly be a better babysitter than anyone.''

''Is that a challenge?'' Pepper raised her eyebrows.

''You tell me.'' Tony smiled his famous smile, which always made her heart flutter.

''Alright then. You want to beat me at something you've never done before and, possible going to fail at? Bring it on.''

They shook hands on it.

**The Diaper Changing Race**

''Okay so first off, we need to change their diapers.'' Pepper said, getting some diapers from the bag. ''I'm not sure Lisa changed them before she left...''

''I can see that!'' Tony pretended to smell something bad and covered his nose.

Pepper threw a paper towel roll at him. ''If these kids were older, they would be offended. Now which baby do you want to take?''

''The boy. I will not feel comfortable around baby girls if I have to change them.'' Tony carefully lifted Greg and set him down on the couch on his back.

''Okay. We both will have 10 minutes to change their diapers. Whoever finishes first wins this round, but you can't look over at the opponent to see how they do things.'' Pepper meant that for Tony since she new he was new to all this(which made her get a better advantage).

''10 minutes? Who finishes changing a _diaper_ in 10 minutes?'' Tony exclaimed.

''People who have experience. Why? Ready to back down already?''

''Never. Let's do this.''

Pepper blew the whistle and they started. Pepper focused on changing Beverly's diapers and moving Tony's face away so he wouldn't see what she was doing. Or how she was doing it.

Tony on the other hand was completely lost on what to do and felt like just giving up and going to sleep, but he wasn't going to let Pepper see that. What if they had a baby together and he didn't know how to change diapers? How embarrassing.

He looked at the clock. 5 minutes had passed already and Pepper looked like she was close to finishing. So with the little time he had left- now down to four minutes- he did his best and thought it a pretty good job. But Pepper would be the judge of that since she had, ''experience''.

Pepper was now finished with 2 minutes to spare. She chuckled when she saw Tony try to finish. His face looked determined, she's never seen anyone looking so determined about changing a diaper. Huh. He really wanted to win.

The 10 minutes were up. She got up and went over to inspect Tony's work, she didn't need to check her own obviously. And what she saw made her want to laugh.

''Tony?'' She asked. ''What have you done with my nephew?''

Greg had five layers of diapers on his lower half, powder smeared a little on his face, and a diaper pin close to his ear. He looked like a big mess. She was really happy she didn't give Tony Beverly. Who knows what he would have done to the girl.

''I tried to change his diaper, and I failed.'' Tony said, an equally discouraged look on his face. ''How did you do?''

Pepper held up Beverly's fresh, new diaper, pin in place and she smelled like a new baby. Pepper smiled at Tony's crestfallen face.

''Oh cheer up. You'll do better on the next round.''

''Which is?''

''Feeding time.''

**The Feeding Race**

''Okay you might want to let me take care of the food in this case. I'm not sure how good you are with cooking....'' Pepper said as she took out Gerbers and bottles and other food-related items.

''If I can't cook then what's the point of this challenge?'' Tony said, sitting boredly at the table.

''This challenge is to see who can feed the kids the fastest, not create a mess, avoid a spill, and burp them under 40 minutes.'' Pepper shook a bottle to get the milk settled.

''I'm the King of All Messes.'' Tony said, waving his arms around. ''I will never ever eat without spilling something, but today I think I'll manage.''

''Except you're not the one eating, it's these two.'' Pepper said, sitting down. ''Just don't choke Greg please.''

Tony gave her a small smile and started feeding Greg. But he was in no mood to eat today. Every single fruit that Tony tried to give him he pushed away. He almost shoved it to the ground but Tony caught it.

Meanwhile Pepper had the best little girl every mother wanted. Beverly ate everything that was given to her. She really was a ''good child''. Greg hated anything green, he was the junk food type. Pepper wondered how Lisa dealt with him, because Tony was losing this round already, and it has only been 10 minutes.

Tone was looking at Beverly with complete envy. He thought about that saying, ''Boys go to Jupiter to get more Stupider, Girls go to College to get more Knowledge,'' and wondered if it was true, in Greg's case. In effort, Tony tried one more time to get Greg to eat something. Just as the cup of milk was nearing Greg's mouth without any trouble, the boy sneezed and the cup fell to the floor, when Tony looked at Pepper her head was down but her knew she was smiling.

''I know you want to laugh.'' Tony said with a grudge. **(A/N: thats what i say to my mom whenever she looks like she's about to laugh. same thing with my friends).**

''You're right. I do.'' Pepper said. When she looked up her face looked slightly red from holding back the urges of laughter. ''But I won't until this is over.''

''Can we switch babies?'' Tony just had to ask.

Pepper shook her head with a smile, just as Beverly was finishing her yogurt.

Tony looked at Greg, who was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

''Do you hate me that much?'' He asked him.

In response Greg pinched his nose.

**Playtime Round at the Park.**

Pepper looked at Tony. He was looking at her with envy. Again.

''Would you get over yourself? It's just a challenge, a little game. So what if you lost two rounds? We have three more to go.''

''I don't like losing to you.'' Tony replied. ''It doesn't feel right.''

Pepper laughed. ''We'll see how your skills are at the playground. This challenge is going to be fairly easy.''

''Oh so you're going to let me win?''

''No.''

Pepper walked over to the swings with Beverly on one hip.

''First we're going to try the swings. Whoever can swing their baby the highest and can get some kind of squeal or whatever out of them, wins this round.''

''Did you have this planned or something?'' Tony asked, putting Greg's foot in the right hole in the swing. ''Because there's no way you could have come up with this after our challenge deal.''

''You don't know many things about me Tony. Planning events is one of them.'' Pepper took the chains of the swings in her hands. ''Ready? Set....Go!!''

The swings took off, Tony's went crazy, and the contest began.

Beverly's face lit up in excitement as she went higher and higher, while Greg's face was in a frown. He hadn't eaten anything, which was mostly his fault, and his stomach was grumbling so he couldn't enjoy anything at the moment.

''Pepper I swear your nephew has something against me.'' Tony said as he went for his 10th push and no smile from Greg.

''He didn't eat earlier.'' Pepper said. ''When you don't eat, your grumpy. I mean when your first came back from the death defying trip the first thing you asked for was a _cheeseburger_. Think about that.''

''This kid didn't spend months fighting for his life in Afghanistan.'' Tony pointed out. ''He was probably in daycare playing with a bunch of snot nosed kids.''

''You were one of those kids, Tony.'' Pepper also pointed out.

''But I wasn't snot nosed.''

''Never mind. This weird discussion isn't getting us anywhere. Let's see if we can really push high this time.''

Beverly had a huge smile, so big it looked like her small face was going to crack any minute now, and her squeal finally came......it was more like a laugh, and she laughed 5 minutes straight.

Tony was tired of losing and could not lose to Pepper again. So he did something drastic.

As Greg's swing came back down Tony pushed it with all his might, which sent the swing looping _over_ the bar, and finally coming down to settle in front of Tony, but not before hitting him full force in the stomach, sending him crashing onto the ground.

''Greg are you okay?'' Pepper said, leaving her post and rushing over to the terrified boy.

Tony was sad. Pepper didn't come to him first. Yeah, he knew that was very selfish but still.

''Tony what the hell was that?'' Pepper demanded standing over him. ''Greg could have gotten seriously hurt!''

''I was.....trying... to .....win.'' Tony choked out.

''You can't win if someone else gets hurt.'' Pepper said. ''Which in this case is you. Come on we're going. You always have to mess something up don't you?''

Tony stood up and shook himself off. ''Forget about it. What's the next round again?''

''Well it's time for their nap. Lisa will be around soon and I can't give her her kids back tired. She'll kill me anyways.''

''I could use one too.'' Tony yawned. Even though it had only been two hours, it felt like a long day. He vowed never to become a father. He didn't want to go bald from all the stress.

**Nap Time= Victory  
**

''This last challenge is super easy. You shouldn't be able to mess it up.'' Pepper said. They were back home, in a guest room, and they had laid Beverly and Greg down on one of the guest beds.

''It's like all the other rounds. Get the baby to sleep, the first one wins.''

''What do we win?'' Tony asked. ''Seriously there has to be a meaning to this last one.''

''Okay then. If I win, you have to do all the paperwork for your company for the next five months.''

''And if I win?'' Tony inquired.

''You choose.''

Tony thought about it. What has Tony always wanted, more than anything in the world? It had to be simple, but also brilliant, and it had to be something that satisfied him to a great point. Bingo.

''If I win you have to go on a date with me.'' He smirked as Pepper blushed.

''Um.....are you sure about that?''

''I've never been unsure of anything before. Come on Pepper be a good sport. You _did _say I could choose whatever I wanted.''

Pepper now hated herself. Every positive thing she said always turned out to be a mistake. And now there was no turning out of it. ''Fine. But that's only if you win.''

Pepper used the rocking method her mother always did to her when she and Lisa were babies. It had always worked on them, and she was certain it would work on Beverly. After all, Beverly was ''the good child'' and would accept anything, right?

Tony used the lullaby method both his parents gave for him. What was different about this one was that it was Italian.

_Nanna BoBo_

_Nana bobò, *  
nana bobò,  
all children are sleeping  
and Guido isn't._

**_Sleep, sleep, sleep, for one year,  
health to your father and then wealth._**

**_Sleep, sleep, sleep, cradle baby.  
Your mother is not here, she has gone away_**

**_Nana bobò,  
nana bobò,  
all children are sleeping  
and Guido isn't._**

**_Nana bobò,  
nana bobò,  
tutti i bambini dormen  
e Guido no._**

**_E dormi, dormi, dormi per un anno,  
La sanità a to padre poi il guadagno_**

**_E dormi, dormi, dormi, bambin de cuna.  
To mama no la gh'è la a-sé andà via_**

**_Nana bobò,  
nana bobò,  
tutti i bambini dormen  
e Guido no_**

Over by Pepper's side, she was having a little trouble getting her ''good child'' to sleep. Beverly kept fussing and looked like she was on the verge of crying. Then Pepper realized that she her teeth were still growing in and that could be quite painful. So for the next eight minutes Pepper had a very cranky baby in her arms, and there was nothing she could do about it. She gave her a teething ring but Beverly was in no mood for any type of ring. As soon as it was in her mouth, she spit it back out.

Greg's eyes were slowly closing, and Tony was slowly winning. He couldn't wait to rub it in Pepper's face, although that was very immature, and he would only win one round, but he never liked losing, whether in fighting or to Pepper.

In a matter of minutes Greg's eyes were completely closed, and Tony had to keep himself from whooping with joy, even though it really wasn't necessary.

Pepper smiled. Hey, he won something, and he wouldn't be pouting over it later, right? But even though, it wasn't like she was just going to hand over the challenge to him and let him win. No, Pepper Potts never lets anybody win like that. Oh boy did Pepper hate teething.

''Truce?'' Tony asked, holding out his hand. He really looked sincere.

Pepper smiled and shook his hand. Then she watched as Tony strolled out of the room, hands in pockets, whistling like a happy man.

_What is he up to?, _Pepper thought, for Tony didn't usually act like that under any circumstances.

A few minutes later Tony's voice was heard from downstairs yelling, ''I BEAT PEPPER POTTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''

Pepper couldn't control herself. She laughed out loud, nearly crushing Beverly, and could not stop. That was one thing she loved about Tony. He always found a way to make her laugh.

**would have updated last night if i didn't have to get of the computer. its up now. hooray! and just a few days before the movie, which i'm completely siked about! can't sleep, can't do work, but i can eat though. i'm not crazy. hope you enjoyed this story one-shot :)**

**and I'll try to make a new story with the deal that tony and pepper made :)**


End file.
